The UK prime minister clearly still adores the band. Perhaps he’s attracted to songs about sham justice and murderous meat factories, shot through with nihilism and exquisite despair

As an origin story, Andy Burnham: Smiths Fan has a lot going for it. It’s plainly authentic: he can name the time he saw them live (Salford University, Queen Is Dead tour, 1986). A cynical young man in a hurry might fake that now, but not back when he first said it, in 2013. Asked by Labour Uncut for his desert island tracks during his 2010 leadership bid, three of the eight were sung by Morrissey (two Smiths singles and one off Viva Hate), which is superfan territory.

That’s a softball exercise to endear yourself to Labour members; you have eight chances to hit every base, and to blow three lives on an artist who had already, by then, been dabbling in nationalism for 18 years (we’ll come back to this) was dicey and brave. You’ll recall that Burnham did not win that election. If you were an enemy state, amassing this hinterland for an asset, you’d have basically done a really good job.

I was in India, performing dentistry on my first animal patient, and it was supposed to be a straightforward operation

I’ve been a dentist for 40 years. I spend most of my time treating patients at my surgery in Chichester, West Sussex. When I studied to become a dentist in the 1980s, I didn’t think I’d be getting my hands anywhere near the teeth of any exotic animals.

Twenty years later, in 2000, that changed. A patient of mine, Alan Knight, the CEO of International Animal Rescue (IAR), showed me photographs of the inside of a bear’s mouth. The bear was called Jojo and his teeth had been broken off by poachers. Some of the teeth were too rotten to be saved – if left untreated, Jojo would become more prone to infection and abscesses.

Their raucous pop music has made Katseye the biggest girl band in two decades. Can they weather toxic fandom, critical pans and a dwindling member count?

Before screenings of their new documentary, the members of Katseye appear in a video message to thank fans for their support. Their followers, Eyekons, have played a critical role in their rise to stardom, so it makes sense that Katseye: Wild Hearts, released in global theaters this month, takes a beat to shout out to them. Perhaps more than many other big music groups today, the group’s rise has depended on their relationship with their devotees who ensure that few corners of the world are safe from Katseye mania.

Katseye’s multinational members – Daniela, Lara, Manon, Megan, Sophia and Yoonchae – were selected through a combination of fan votes and judge scores on the 2023 YouTube reality competition The Debut: Dream Academy. The joint project between American record label Geffen Records and Korean entertainment company Hybe aimed to create a global girl group, with hopefuls participating in a rigorous bootcamp to test their singing and dancing skills. The following year, Netflix’s docu-series Pop Star Academy: Katseye – which documented the group’s nascent era, behind-the-scenes drama and all – catapulted them to a new level of visibility.

Why do the Texan innovator’s records take so long to make? ‘It’s important to gather the data,’ she says: the death, dating and dopamine behind her exquisite comeback alongside the Alchemist

Erykah Badu needs the lights down low. The singer, producer, actor and registered doula shuffles into a private room at London’s Soho hotel and quietly asks for some changes to the atmosphere: lights dimmed, soft seat. A green juice would be great.

As it turns out, Badu was out last night with Dave Chappelle, sitting with the comedian at a grand piano and playing songs into the wee hours. She looks mischievous when she thinks about the impromptu party, but declines to go into detail about what, exactly, went on. Instead, the 55-year-old smiles at me, eyes wide, her gold teeth glinting in the low light: “Oh yes,” she says slowly and quietly, like some kind of mysterious warlock. “It was a late one …”

The prime minister has lifted the spirits of the public and party members, and must use that goodwill to push through change

He bounded into the packed rally, a spring-heeled intruder whose very presence announced a coup at last year’s Labour conference. And so it was. Andy Burnham spoke with ebullient self-confidence, yet without aggression or a barrage of insults. They tried to stop him with a bogus constitutional fix barring him from standing in Gorton and Denton. But those Labour hierarchs lost it without him. His subsequent Makerfield victory proved their mistake and opened the door right into No 10 without dispute.

At that standing-room-only rally on proportional representation he made a pitch-perfect noteless speech of personal passion about the failure of politics to connect, the decline of Westminster, the public’s distrust and the risk of this lost public belief in democracy. His hands were clean, he never benefited from the monster majority that first past the post had delivered so unfairly to Labour MPs: he wasn’t there at the last two elections. He quit out of despair, returning to repair.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Other governments could seek similar concessions, while separate legal action is pending in places ranging from Kenya to the Netherlands

In October 2021, Abrham Meareg’s father, a professor of chemistry in Ethiopia’s northern town of Bahir Dar, was shot at close range and died outside his family home. This was in the middle of the country’s civil war.

For weeks, Facebook’s algorithm had actively promoted posts calling for the academic to be murdered, according to Meareg and Foxglove, a nonprofit organisation supporting Meareg’s lawsuit against the company in Kenya. These posts included photos of his father and his home address.

More than 1,500 people are missing, including hundreds of foreign nationals and tourists, amid race to find survivors

• Flood risk forces halt to rescues in Tibet, as Nepal death toll rises to 469

• Visual guide: how the deadly flooding unfolded

• Tell us: have you been affected by the flash floods?

More now on the Nepali army’s rescue operation to save about 100 people trapped in a tunnel at a hydropower project swamped by Wednesday’s flooding.

“Two helicopters have been dispatched but it is challenging because it is tough to even locate the entry points of the tunnel,” army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet told AFP.

Relief efforts are also under way to provide the rescued people what they need.

The army is still working to safely evacuate more than 100 people trapped in the same tunnel.

Roadmap for increasing department’s share of GDP will be deferred until next year’s review

The chancellor will delay setting out when the UK will meet the target of allocating 3% of GDP on defence until next year’s spending review, the Treasury has confirmed.

John Healey resigned as defence secretary in June under Keir Starmer’s leadership, accusing the prime minister of being “unable” and the Treasury “unwilling” to “commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country”.

Christian Drogan’s Invading Britain shows former builder turned journalist trying to travel from France to England in small boat

Rupert Murdoch’s online channel TalkTV is facing criticism after it did not disclose that a journalist who travelled to Britain in a small boat for a documentary was a Reform party member and activist.

The channel revealed the “world exclusive” this week, stating that the treacherous journey had made the former builder turned journalist Christian Drogan the first British man “to invade his own country”.

Average cost of petrol reaches 161.6p a litre, while diesel costs average of 183.4p, according to the AA

UK petrol prices have hit their highest level since 2022, piling more financial pressure on motorists before the bank holiday weekend.

The average cost of petrol has reached 161.6p a litre, while diesel costs an average of 183.4p a litre, according to the AA breakdown company.